We Buy Gold Coins & Jewelry from Estates

Estate Gold Jewelry

Gold: Jewelry, Watches, Coins & other Hidden Treasures

As a historic store of wealth and hard valued currency, gold continues to be a highly sought-after commodity for many reasons, and as such we see many estates that have a large amount of gold.  This gold can take various forms, so it’s important to have an estate buyer or liquidation company that can recognize gold in its many forms, understand the market demand and liquidity of gold in each of these forms, and whether there will be the collectible value that exceeds the intrinsic value of the metal itself, and if so, how best to tap into that value.

Whether you are selling to us directly, or we are liquidating your estate via a traditional sale, our expertise in identifying and assessing all types of gold will ensure proper handling of one of your estate’s greatest assets.  Please continue reading to see some of the places where we find gold that other companies miss!

Gold Coins & Jewelry

Pocket Watches and Wrist Watches

While most people are well aware that watches may contain gold, there are some nuances to making this determination:

  • Pocket Watches:  The most common misconception with pocket watches is that if it is marked 14k or 18k, it is solid gold of said purity.  This is NOT the case.  It is actually more common to see gold-filled cases marked with a karat purity, but that also says something to the effect of “Warranted (10,20 or 30) Years”.  This means the case is gold-filled, and the thick 14k or 18k plating was warranted by the case maker not to wear through for that duration.  Pocket watches received more wear and tear than the average piece of gold-filled jewelry, being constantly removed and replaced in the pocket, and as such the cases needed to have extra thick gold plating.  Real gold pocket watches will typically be marked only with a stamp that reads 14k, 18k, 750, 585, or perhaps a small punched hallmark if Swiss or from certain other European countries, which we can translate for you to the purity of the gold.  The word “Assay Warranted” is also seen on pure gold cases, not to be confused with the aforementioned “Warranted 20 years”.  Still, we have seen cases marked with only a “14k” mark that was in fact gold filled.  We can test any case in doubt to make a final determination of purity.
  • Wristwatches are generally marked in the same manner as mentioned above, but the tricky bit is that many are marked on the inside of the case.  Again, it takes thousands of hours of experience to be able to quickly tell which watches may be unmarked gold and need to have the cases opened for additional inspection.

Custom Made Gold Jewelry

Custom Made Gold Jewelry

People have custom jewelry made for a variety of reasons. Some of this jewelry is so atypical of fine jewelry that it can easily be missed or passed over as merely costume. This fact combined with the possible absence of purity hallmarks can make substantially valuable pieces of custom gold jewelry easy to miss for the untrained eye. Part of the value we add as experienced buyers are spotting these items and paying you a fair price, while other companies might miss them.

Dental Gold

It is common to find a container with teeth that have gold caps, bridges, and other dental gold in a loved one’s belongings. The impulse of many people is to throw these items out; that they cannot possibly be of value. Dental gold is typically slightly higher karat (around 16 karats) and can have considerable value! Set it aside for us to evaluate.

Broken Gold, Mis-Matched Earrings

Refining gold jewelry is easy for us, as we buy in high enough volume that we can work directly with refineries that will not work with the general public. You might be surprised to find out the amount of money that a small pile of kinked and broken gold necklaces, rings, and bracelets can bring you!

Compacts and other Enameled Accessories

Over the years we have seen quite a few unmarked pieces of French and European gold with enamel work that could easily be missed (in fact had been missed by other appraisers) that was in fact high carat gold. One specific example was a French Guilloche Ladies Compact in the form of a Pocket Watch case. There were absolutely no markings on the piece, which had over an ounce of 18k gold. This is just one of many examples we have seen where the pieces are sometimes Victorian era and somewhat tarnished due to age, making them appear to be enameled sterling pieces. One needs a trained eye to spot the forms and styles that were traditionally gold as opposed to sterling, and the massive volume of gold jewelry we have dealt with over the years gives us the ability to quickly make this assessment.

World Coins

There are many well-known gold coins in the world, but many lesser-known ones as well. We can quickly assess your coin collection and identify all gold coins, along with their purity and weight, to determine their AGW (actual gold weight), then compare the gold value to their numismatic value to determine whether the coins have greater value as collectibles or bullion. You certainly wouldn’t want to sell your civil war-era US Gold coins minted in Charlotte or Dahlonega mints for their bullion value!

Men’s Jewelry

  • Class Rings – Lately the Japanese have been purchasing class rings from well know US colleges, but lesser-known school rings are still typically quite heavy and valuable.
  • Cuff Links and Tie Tacks —  These are often unmarked, but can be either gold or platinum.  There are also lots of company-themed tie tacks (like NASA) that can have high value even though they are costumes.
  • Chains and Bracelets – Although maybe not the most fashionable, these pieces are often some of the most valuable.  A medium-sized men’s gold necklace can contain well over an ounce of gold.  The chunkier the better!

If your estate includes a considerable amount of gold, you owe it to yourself and your family to contact us.  You will quickly appreciate the difference our knowledge, expertise, and transparency make!

Call, Text, or Email us for more information regarding our Estate Gold Coin & Jewelry buying service and how we can help.